Saturday, January 24, 2009

An on the road saga - Part 5!!

We sat anxiously outside the two different RTO offices to get our International driving permit sanctioned. Suddenly my cell phone rang... it was PP ..."success... I got mine done ! what about yours?" 'No",I replied...."Mr.RTO has still not arrived the scene.Looks like we will have to cancel tonight's train ticket." "OMG! I have an important meeting in office tomorrow... I can't spare any more leave.You come later with kids...."said PP. After two day long satyagraha outside the RTO and after filling the empty pockets of various administrative staff I got my much awaited IDP....

With the valuable IDP safely in my purse , we packed our bags once again to leave our land ... for a 3 year long stay in US.
My first impression of US roads was admiration and awe.... then came anxiety ....who would not be anxious to see the cars zooming on the free ways ...each time a vehicle passed me I could feel a burner kindling in my tummy. "How can I drive on these roads...."

After much thought I was enlightened ... yes I understood that till now I was never driving....being still alive after driving on our Indian roads was not less than a miracle!
After a few weeks in US, necessity forced me to sit behind the steering and drive our FORD Taurus... Yes ., I enjoyed those moments when I drove the car in the early morning to give dance lessons to a group of Indian kids. We started feeling the necessity of having a second vehicle and leased a Chrysler town and country...From then on that became my on the road companion.... I was transformed into a full time chauffeur ... driving the kids to and from school, shopping , trips to library , to my dance classes....

My IDP was expiring in a few weeks .. when a new rule came up by the SOS that only green card holders were issued a drivers permit. I was in a dilemma .... Still with the confidence that very thing will fall into place , I continued with my road trips ....

One day as I was on my way to dropping my kindergartner to school ... one police vehicle suddenly came opposite our vehicle... before I knew, the police car took a U turn and with the lights and the siren blaring started following me.


I remembered what PP told me what to do when a police car follows you, with the lights and siren on,... just take your vehicle to the side and park it safely and wait for the officer to come ..
I did exactly that .. trying not to panic ...my toddler started screaming on top of his voice.... "amma .... amma ... police .... ammma ...." I could see the fear in the eyes of my kindergartner, even when he tried to calm down his brother.... Those few minutes of waiting seemed to be like hours...and finally the officer came beside my the driver's window and asked ... " license please" .
.......to be continued.....

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

hi,
just saw u started blogging ..good luck. hope all well
take care . hi to all
ust
mi

J said...

Caught up with your posts today! I loved our Mazda and was heart broken when we had to sell it! Part 5 is interesting, almost like a mystery...what happens next??

starry said...

Thanks for stopping by my blog and I do hope you come back again.cute kids and love how you write.cannot wait for part 2.

Sum Raj said...

woo nice reading ur post nanduakka..waiting 4 the next wht happend then?

Maddy said...

did you really need the IDP in US? I thought you could use the national license for renting cars

Nanditha Prabhu said...

hi usha , thanks for stopping by.... though i started blogging i find it hard to keep the old pace.... there r other priorities now.


Jyothsna,
hope to finish off with this series soon .. thanks for stopping by and checking on this blog though i am not very frequent now.

starry nights,
welcome here... thanks for your warm comments.

hey suma ,
next wil soon follow...

maddy,
we had bought one car and then taken one for lease. we needed an IDP in Michigan . I have heard that such rules change from state to state ....

harimohan said...

waiting for the continuation

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